1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a printer and recording medium that performs desired printing on a print-receiving medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are known printers that perform desired printing on a print-receiving medium. In such a printer, an operator mounts a cartridge that stores a print-receiving medium (a cover film and a base tape) on a cartridge holder, and the print-receiving medium supplied from the cartridge is fed. Desired print is formed by printing means (a print head) on the fed print-receiving medium, thereby generating a printed matter (RFID label). To control the positioning of the print-receiving medium along the transport direction when such feeding and a print operation are performed, an identifier (identification mark) for positioning is disposed on the print-receiving medium. This identifier of the print-receiving medium is detected by detecting means (a mark sensor), and the positioning of the print-receiving medium is controlled in accordance with the detection result.
As an example of the positioning control, the initial position when the print processing is started may be set, for example. The cartridge is detachable from the cartridge holder and sometimes removed from the cartridge holder by the operator before the print processing starts. According to such a configuration, the state of the print-receiving medium in the removed cartridge (in other words, the position of the identifier along the transport direction) may be undefined.
Hence, according to the above prior art, after the print processing starts, first the print-receiving medium is fed in the transport direction to control the feeding and print operation with high accuracy, regardless of the state of the print-receiving medium when the cartridge is mounted. Then, once the detecting means detects the identifier, the feeding state at that moment serves as the initial state. Then, the feeding in the transport direction and the control of print formation thereafter are performed using the initial state as reference. Nevertheless, in this case, until feeding is performed when the print processing starts and the identifier is detected as described above, a blank area where print formation is not performed is fed (so-called loading is performed), resulting in waste of the print-receiving medium.
Note that, while the above has been described in connection with an illustrative scenario in which the cartridge that stores the print-receiving medium is detachable from the cartridge holder, the position of the print-receiving medium when not stored is undefined and the same problem may occur even in a configuration where the print-receiving medium wound into a roll shape is stored in storage means of the printer and subsequently used.